ChemViz3D

About ChemViz3D

Chemical reactions are three-dimensional. Textbooks aren't.

ChemViz3D lets students watch reactions unfold as real-time 3D animations in the browser — rotating to any angle, pausing on a frame, and seeing exactly how atoms move and bonds break and form. Built for chemistry teaching, and used in UTS chemistry courses today.

Why we built this

In most chemistry classrooms, a reaction is a static arrow on a page. Students are asked to imagine how molecules approach, collide, and rearrange in three dimensions — but they never actually see it. The spatial intuition that experienced chemists take for granted is exactly what a 2D diagram is worst at teaching.

ChemViz3D turns that arrow back into motion. Students open a link, watch the reaction play out as a real 3D scene, and explore it themselves — rotating to any angle, pausing on a single frame, zooming in on a bond. What was abstract becomes something they can look at and reason about.

UTS

Classroom use & acknowledgements

ChemViz3D is developed under the guidance of two UTS professors, and is already part of real chemistry teaching. We are grateful for their academic guidance and support.

Prof. Andrew McDonagh

Professor & Discipline Leader (Chemistry), School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Prof. Nico Pietroni

Professor, School of Computer Science

UTS

teaching delivery upgrade for UTS courses

RACI 2026

reaction animations produced for the National Congress

Bring 3D chemistry into your classroom

Open a link and watch a reaction actually move.

ChemViz3D is free on chemviz3d.com for individual students, learners, and educators, with no sign-up required. Institutional, LMS, enterprise, redistribution, and product-integration use requires prior permission or a separate licence.

Appendix

For the technically curious: how ChemViz3D is built, and the open resources it stands on.

Technology Stack

Built with modern web technologies

React

UI Framework

Responsive component architecture for efficient, maintainable interfaces.

Three.js

3D Engine

WebGL rendering for complex molecular visualization in the browser.

React Three Fiber

React 3D Renderer

Declarative Three.js scenes integrated with React.

Zustand

State Management

Lightweight shared state for interactive editing and playback.

RDKit.js

Chemistry Toolkit

Cheminformatics tools for molecular structure processing.

Tailwind CSS

CSS Framework

Utility-first styling for responsive interface design.

Open-source & Data Services

With thanks to the open-source and public-data projects ChemViz3D relies on.

RDKit.js

This project uses RDKit.js for molecular structure processing. We are grateful to the RDKit community for their excellent open-source chemistry toolkit.

BSD 3-Clause License

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Learn more about RDKit at https://github.com/rdkit/rdkit

PubChem PUG-REST API

This project uses PubChem PUG-REST API to retrieve molecular structure data. PubChem is a free chemical database provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), containing structural, property, and bioactivity data for over 100 million compounds. We thank PubChem for providing public, free API services.

Official Homepage: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

NCI/CADD Chemical Identifier Resolver

This project uses NCI/CADD Chemical Identifier Resolver API for chemical structure resolution. Provided by the NCI CADD team, this service supports the conversion of various chemical identifiers and 3D coordinate generation. We thank NCI/CADD for providing public, free API services.

Official Homepage: https://cactus.nci.nih.gov/chemical/structure

Cheminformatics Microservice API (OCSR/DECIMER)

This project uses the OCSR API provided by Cheminformatics Microservice, developed by Steinbeck Lab. Based on DECIMER, it can recognize chemical molecular structures from images and convert them to SMILES representations. We thank the Cheminformatics Microservice team for providing open-source services to the cheminformatics community.

Documentation: https://docs.api.naturalproducts.net

API https://api.naturalproducts.net

GitHub https://github.com/Steinbeck-Lab/cheminformatics-microservice

Reference:
Kohulan Rajan, Venkata Chandrasekhar, Nisha Sharma, Sri Ram Sagar Kanakam, Felix Baensch, Christoph Steinbeck. (2025). "Cheminformatics Microservice V3: a web portal for chemical structure manipulation and analysis." Journal of Cheminformatics, 17, 142. DOI: 10.1186/s13321-025-01094-1

Usage Rights & Licensing

Free for individual learning & teaching

ChemViz3D is free on chemviz3d.com for individual students, learners, and educators, including an educator using it in their own teaching. No sign-up required. Institutional, LMS, enterprise, redistribution, and product-integration use requires prior permission or a separate licence.

Enterprise & custom integration

Need to integrate ChemViz3D into a product, LMS, or training platform? Contact us to discuss custom deployment and licensing options.